Books

The Long Shadow – Celia Fremlin, Faber – out now

IF you are expecting a houseful this Christmas, spare a thought for The Long Shadow’s heroine Imogen, who we meet as she struggles with the death of her husband Ivor.

He was an arrogant womaniser, and weeks after he meets his end in a car crash her house has filled with uninvited guests.

These include grown-up children from previous marriages and one of his former wives.

As objects start to move in mysterious ways, Imogen begins to wonder if Ivor too has come home for Christmas.

Then there is the matter of the stranger accusing Imogen of killing him herself. This superbly suspenseful story, originally written in 1975, is a classy Christmas chiller delivered in razor